The increasing popularity of in-line skates has manifested itself in recent years as the skates have become a choice means of transportation, even in busy city environments. The graduation from a sport/leisure item to a means of transportation has had some attendant problems. Among these, there is a need for the in-line skate enthusiast to periodically access premises in which skating is either not permitted or undesirable. Various devices have been proposed for use with such skates in order to permit the wearer to access such premises without the inconvenience of removing the skate.
Many of the devices conceived for use with in-line skates have been inspired by designs made available for use with ice skates where a similar problem has existed for many years. The devices essentially comprise a channel-shaped member which receives the wheels of the in-line skate and some releasable means of attaching the channel to the body of the skate as in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,290,065; 5,303,955; and 5,445,415. A significant disadvantage of such devices is that the wheels of the skate are free to rotate inside the associated channel and the attachment means may permit relative motion between the skate and the device. This inevitably may compromise the safety of the wearer. Indeed, in some such devices, the "channel" is cut away to expose some of the wheels, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,224, and the exposed wheels could easily come into rolling engagement with an irregular surface or a staircase, and thereby endanger the wearer.
An object of this invention is to provide an attachment for use with in-line skates which will make them suitable for walking and which, at least in part, addresses some of the afore-mentioned problems manifested in prior art devices.